IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2014/2015: IT Budget/Cost Metrics and Other Key Performance Indicators by Industry and Organization Size

Developing and benchmarking, information technology spending or IT employee staffing levels can be a difficult exercise. Our IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study makes the job easier by providing hundreds of useful ratios, statistics, and other IT cost metrics for IT budgeting and IT employee headcount analysis. IT spending as a percent of revenue and dozens of other IT budget ratios are documented.

In this annual report, we provide IT budget and staffing metrics by industry sector and organization size for businesses and government organizations in North America, based on our annual in-depth survey of over 200 IT executives, now in its 24th year.

WHO NEEDS THIS STUDY?
For CIOs and consulting firms, this 26-chapter study provides current metrics and unbiased data for you to benchmark your total IT spending and staffing levels. This study will allow you to:

Benchmark your IT operational spending levels by comparing them with those of organizations of similar size and industry sector. Over 20 specific IT cost management ratios and other IT support metrics are provided, such as IT budget as a percent of revenue and IT spending per employee, allowing IT executives to highlight opportunities to reduce IT costs and optimize IT expenses.

For providers of IT products and services, this study provides valuable insights into the current budgeting priorities of IT buyers and changes in levels of IT operational and capital spending. This study provides objective data based on our in-depth survey of IT decision makers. As such, it can be a valuable source of information to validate assumptions underlying your annual business development and sales plans.

PURCHASING OPTIONS

Scroll down to read a detailed description of each chapter. Click on any link to purchase now.

Net Percentage of Organizations Expecting to Spend More Than Budgeted for IT Operations: 2010-2014

Adequacy of the Current IT Operational Budget to Support the Business: All Sectors

IT Budget as Percentage of Revenue at the Median: 2010-2014

IT Operational Budget per User at the Median: 2010-2014

Change from Prior Year in Median IT Operational Budget, by Sector

Percentage of Organizations Changing IT Capital Spending: All Sectors

Median Annual Growth of IT Capital Budgets: 2010-2014

How Actual IT Capital Spending Will Compare to Budget: All Sectors

IT Budget Priorities Ranked by Importance: All Sectors

Percentage of Organizations Changing IT Staff Headcount

Chapter 2, Composite Benchmarks[Buy Now]
This chapter provides composite metrics for all of the organizations surveyed, across all industry sectors and organization sizes. The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 3A, 3B, 3C: Benchmarks by Organization Size
In these three chapters, we analyze each of our I.T. spending and staffing metrics by organization size. This chapter classifies organization size differently than most classification schemes. We use the size of the IT operational budget, as revenue is not always a good indicator of the size of the IT operation. This enables IT organizations to compare themselves against similar-size IT organizations. We define the size categories as follows:

To avoid the problem of having very small organizations in our sample, we have excluded respondents with less than $50 million in annual revenue.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 4: Process Manufacturing Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 4 provides benchmarks for process manufacturers based on our current-year survey. Process manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by mixing, separating, forming, or chemical reaction. The 25 respondents in this sector include manufacturers of chemicals, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, food, building materials, packaging materials, and steel, glass and paper products, among other process-manufactured goods. We also provide subsector metrics for food and beverage companies in Chapter 12

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 5: Discrete Manufacturing Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 5 provides benchmarks for discrete manufacturing organizations across all organization sizes based on our current survey. Discrete manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by fabricating or assembling individual (discrete) unit production. The 23 respondents in this sector include manufacturers of consumer products, industrial equipment, aerospace products, auto parts, building products, electrical parts, biomedical devices, and electronic devices. We also have subsector benchmarks for industrial and automotive manufacturers in Chapter 13. Our subsector chapters provide key metrics based on data gathered over a three-year period.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 6: High-Tech Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 6 provides benchmarks for high-tech organizations across all organization sizes based on our current survey. The 24 respondents in this section include software developers, biotech firms, medical device companies, computer products manufacturers, aerospace and defense manufacturers, technical service companies, semiconductor manufacturers, and makers of other technology products. We also provide subsector metrics for IT services and solutions in Chapter 22.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 8: Retail and Wholesale Distribution Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 8 provides benchmarks for retail and wholesale distribution organizations across all organization sizes based on our current survey. The 27 respondents in this sector include broadline and specialty wholesale distributors of industrial and consumer products and brick-and-mortar retail operations, multichannel retailers, and direct-sales manufacturers. We also have subsector metrics for retail in Chapter 18 and wholesale distributors in Chapter 19.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 10: Professional and Technical Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 10 provides benchmarks for professional and technical services across all organization sizes based on our current survey. The 21 respondents in this sector include firms that provide professional and technical services, including engineering, legal, accounting, consulting, marketing, and research, among other services. We also publish key metrics for the IT services and solutions subsector in Chapter 22.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 11: Public and Non-Profit Sector Benchmarks[Buy Now]
Chapter 11 provides benchmarks for public and nonprofit organizations based on our current survey. The 43 respondents in this sector include city and county governments, regional agencies, state and federal government agencies, state governments, universities and school systems, and nonprofit organizations. We also provide subsector metrics for city and county governments in Chapter 24, for federal, state, and regional government agencies in Chapter 25, and for education in Chapter 26.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 12: Food and Beverage Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 12 provides benchmarks for food and beverage manufacturers across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 23 respondents produce beverages, snack foods, meat products, dairy products, dietary supplements, spices, and other consumable food products. Some also distribute products to retail outlets.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 13: Industrial and Automotive Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 13 provides benchmarks for industrial and automotive manufacturers across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 36 respondents in this subsector make auto parts, material handling equipment, engines, machinery, and similar capital goods.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 14: Oil and Gas Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 14 provides benchmarks for oil and gas producers, service companies, and midstream distributors across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 17 respondents in this subsector include integrated energy companies, upstream exploration and production companies, onshore and offshore field services companies, and pipeline operators.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 15: UtilitiesSubsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 15 provides benchmarks for utilities across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 19 respondents in this subsector include gas and electric utilities, power transmission distributors, pipeline operators, water and power utilities, and telecommunications service providers.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 16: Transportation and Logistics Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 16 provides benchmarks for transportation and logistics services across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 23 respondents in this subsector operate buses, trucks, railways, airlines, barges, and ships. The sector includes logistics companies that transport goods and public and private transportation companies that move people.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 17: Construction and Environmental Services Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 17 provides benchmarks for construction and environmental service companies across all organization sizes, based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 22 respondents include engineering companies, commercial, residential, and industrial construction contractors, oil service firms, and firms that specialize in the cleanup, treatment, and disposal of wastewater and hazardous materials.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 18: Retail Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 18 provides benchmarks for retailers based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 32 respondents in this sector include retailers of clothing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, groceries, office supplies, and general merchandise. They include department stores, specialty retailers, big-box retailers, and direct manufacturers. We also include hospitality and consumer services in this sector.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 19: Wholesale Distribution Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 19 provides benchmarks for wholesale distributors based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 34 respondents in this subsector include wholesale distributors of building products, home furnishings, home improvement products, industrial components, electronics, clothing, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, and food and beverage, among other products.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 20: Commercial Banking Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 20 provides benchmarks for commercial banks based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 17 respondents in this subsector include commercial banks and credit unions. The banks include community, regional, and national banks.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 21: Insurance Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 21 provides benchmarks for insurance companies based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 32 respondents in this sector include providers of life, medical, and property and casualty insurance. The sector includes multiline insurance firms, integrated financial service companies, reinsurers, and specialty insurers.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 22: IT Services and Solutions Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 22 provides IT spending and staffing statistics for the IT services and solutions subsector based on the most recent three years of survey data. There are 26 organizations in this subsector, including software companies, systems integrators, solution providers, BPO firms, and other providers of technology services and solutions.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 25: Government Agency Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 25 provides benchmarks for federal, state, and regional government agencies based on the most recent three years of survey data. There are 19 respondents in this sector, including transportation planning agencies, public health agencies, social service agencies, environmental regulatory agencies, civil service commissions, and other federal, state, and regional government units.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

Chapter 26: Education Subsector Metrics[Buy Now]
Chapter 26 provides benchmarks for the education subsector based on the most recent three years of survey data. The 21 respondents in this subsector include public and private colleges and universities and large public school districts.

The metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Metrics Descriptions section below.

METRICS DESCRIPTIONS

Metrics for Composite (Chapter 2) and Organization Size (Chapter 3A, 3B, 3C) Benchmarks
Our composite benchmarks (Chapter 2) includes those shown in the table of contents below. These same benchmarks are also provided by organization size in Chapter 3A, 3B, and 3C.

Demographics
The metrics in this section show key measures of size, characteristics, and IT intensity of the respondents in the sample:

Organization size demographics, including revenue, employees, and revenue per employee

IT spending demographics, including IT spending, IT operational spending, IT capital spending, and IT outsourcing budget

IT infrastructure demographics, including number of data centers, network sites, and business applications

Key metrics for IT intensity, including users per employee, PCs per user, percentage of users with tablets, percentage of users with smartphones, users per network site, and percentage of application functionality from custom systems

Spending by Type
These metrics provide additional demographic information and can be used to identify IT management trends.

Percentage of IT spending devoted to ongoing support

Outsourcing as percentage of IT budget

Percentage of IT spending outside IT budget

Trend in spending outside the IT budget

IT Planning and Budgeting Priorities
This section we rank key priorities influencing IT planning and budgeting.

Spending Priorities with Highest Priority

Spending Priorities with Lowest Priority

Total IT Spending Metrics
These metrics assess the total IT spending trends and levels

Total IT Spending as Percentage of Revenue

Total IT Spending per User

Total IT Spending per PC

Budget Categories as Average Percentage of Total IT Spending

IT Operational Spending Metrics
These metrics assess IT operational budget trends and levels:

Percentage of organizations decreasing, maintaining, or increasing IT operational spending year over year

IT operational budget percentage change from previous year

How executives expect actual IT operational spending will compare to budget

Adequacy of current IT operational budget to support the business

IT operational spending as percentage of revenue

IT operational spending per user

IT operational spending per PC

Percentage of IT operational budget charged back to users

Budget categories as average percentage of IT operational spending (see Figure 1 for Example)

Percentage of organizations decreasing, maintaining, or increasing IT capital spending

IT capital budget change from prior year

Percentage of organizations expecting to spend more, the same, or less than amount budgeted for IT capital expenses this year

IT capital budget as percentage of total IT budget

Budget categories as average percentage of capital budget

IT Staffing Metrics
These metrics assess IT staffing trends and levels:

Users per IT staff member

Percentage of organizations increasing, maintaining, or decreasing IT staff levels from previous year

IT staff headcount change from previous year

IT staff turnover

Annual training allocation per IT employee

Contractors and temporary workers as percentage of IT staff

IT staff job functions as percentage of IT staff (see Figure 2 for Example)

Job function benchmarks
These metrics show key benchmarks for six job functions:

IT managers as percentage of IT staff

OS instances per server support staff member

Network devices per network support staff member

Applications per application developer

PCs per desktop support staff member

Users per help desk staff member

First call resolution rate

Service Area Spending Metrics
These metrics show IT spending by service area as percentage of total IT spending. The service areas are IT management, business applications, data center, network, and end-user computing.

Business Application Metrics
These metrics show business application metrics, including:

End-user Computing Metrics
These metrics show the following end-user computing metrics:

End-user devices as percentage of IT spending

End-user device spending per user

PC refresh rate in years

Printing as percentage of IT spending

Printing spending per user

Users per printer

As noted above, in each chapter, the section on total IT spending and the secton on IT operational budgets include a detailed analysis of IT budget line items as a percentage of the total. Line items include IT personnel, application software, servers and storage systems, data center management software, business continuity, energy/utilities, IT facilities/floorspace, network infrastructure, carrier service, security, PCs and smartphones, printers, and “other.” An example of the presentation of this data is shown in Figure 1. Please note that the percentages shown here do not represent the actual data in the report, but are only provided to illustrate the format of the data presented.

As noted earlier, the staffing section of each chapter concludes with a breakdown of IT staffing ratios for 17 individual job positions, with each position provided as an average percentage of the total IT headcount. Job positions include IT managers; IT finance/vendor managers; project managers; clerical/administration; application development and maintenance; business analysts; web and e-commerce staff; data management; quality assurance and testing;database administration; system programmers and system administrators; computer operations and production control; network and communications; security; help desk; dfesktop support; and documentation, training and IT process/standards personnel.

An example of the presentation of this data is shown in Figure 2. Please note once again that the percentages shown here do not represent the actual data in the report, but are only provided to illustrate the format of the data presented.

Metrics for the Industry Sector Chapters (Chapters 4 – 11)
The benchmarks we provide for each industry sector are shown in the table of contents below.

Demographics
The metrics in this section describe the key characteristics of the sector to establish a basis for comparison with other IT operations. These metrics are as follows:

Organization size demographics, including revenue, employees, and revenue per employee

IT spending demographics, including total IT spending, IT operational spending, IT capital spending, and IT outsourcing budget

IT infrastructure demographics, including number of data centers, network sites, and business applications

Key metrics for IT intensity, including users per employee, PCs per user, percentage of users with tablets, percentage of users with smartphones, users per network site, and percentage of application functionality from custom systems

Spending by Type
These metrics provide additional demographic information and can be used to identify IT management trends.

Percentage of IT spending devoted to ongoing support

Outsourcing as percentage of IT budget

Percentage of IT spending outside IT budget

IT Planning and Budgeting Priorities
This section shows which objectives currently have the highest and lowest importance for IT executives:

Spending Priorities with Highest Priority

Spending Priorities with Lowest Priority

Total IT Spending Metrics
These metrics assess the total IT spending trends and levels:

Total IT spending as percentage of revenue

Total IT spending per user

Total IT spending per PC

Budget categories as average percentage of total IT spending

IT Operational Spending Metrics
These metrics assess IT operational budget trends and levels:

Percentage of organizations decreasing, maintaining, or increasing IT operational spending year over year

IT operational budget percentage change from previous year

How executives expect actual IT operational spending will compare to budget

Percentage of organizations decreasing, maintaining, or increasing IT capital spending

IT capital budget change from prior year

Percentage of organizations expecting to spend more, the same, or less than amount budgeted for IT capital expenses this year

IT capital budget as percentage of total IT budget

Budget categories as average percentage of capital budget

IT Staffing Metrics
These metrics assess IT staffing trends and levels:

Users per IT staff member

Percentage of organizations increasing, maintaining, or decreasing IT staff levels from previous year

IT staff headcount change from previous year

IT staff turnover

Annual training allocation per IT employee

Contractors and temporary workers as percentage of IT staff

IT staff job functions as percentage of IT staff (see Figure 2 for Example)

Service area spending metrics
These metrics show IT spending by service area as percentage of total IT spending. The service areas are IT management, business applications, data center, network, and end-user computing.

Metrics for Subsector Metrics Chapters (Chapters 12-26)
The benchmarks we provide for each industry sector are shown in the table of contents below.

Demographics
The metrics in this section describe the key characteristics of the sector to establish a basis for comparison with other IT operations. These metrics are as follows:

Organization size demographics, including revenue, employees, and revenue per employee

IT spending demographics, including total IT spending, IT operational spending, IT capital spending, and IT outsourcing budget

IT infrastructure demographics, including number of data centers, network sites, and business applications

Key metrics for IT intensity, including users per employee, PCs per user, percentage of users with tablets, percentage of users with smartphones, users per network site, and percentage of application functionality from custom systems

IT Spending by Type
These metrics provide additional demographic information and can be used to identify IT management trends.

Percentage of IT spending devoted to ongoing support

Outsourcing as percentage of IT budget

Percentage of IT spending outside IT budget

Total IT Spending Metrics
These metrics assess the total IT spending trends and levels:

Total IT spending as percentage of revenue

Total IT spending per user

Total IT spending per PC

Budget categories as average percentage of total IT spending

IT Operational Spending Metrics
These metrics assess IT operational budget trends and levels:

IT operational budget as percentage of revenue

IT operational budget per user

IT operational budget per PC

Percentage of IT operational budget charged back to users

Budget categories as average percentage of IT operational spending

Personnel costs as percentage of IT operational spending

Depreciation as percentage of IT operational budget

IT Capital Spending Metrics
These metrics assess IT capital spending:

IT Capital Budget as Percentage of Total IT Budget

IT Capital Spending by Budget Category

IT Staffing Metrics
These metrics assess trend data on IT staffing:

Users per IT Staff Member

IT Staff Turnover

Annual Training Allocation per IT Employee

Contingency Workers as Percentage of IT Staff

IT Staffing Mix

Spending by service area
These metrics provide spending by service area as percentage of total IT spending: